Archive By Section - Nationwide

SAN JOSE (AP) - A California registered sex offender convicted of molesting a relative was caught volunteering at a Catholic elementary school festival, but he was not arrested because he had a permission letter from a church official.

OAKLAND (AP) - A federal judge has ordered city officials to negotiate with two lawyers who want the embattled Oakland Police Department to become the first in the nation to be taken over by the federal government.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A day of reckoning arrived for BP on Thursday as the oil giant agreed to plead guilty to a raft of charges in the deadly Gulf of Mexico spill and pay a record $4.5 billion, including the biggest criminal fine in U.S. history. Three BP employees were also charged, two of them with manslaughter.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government has filed criminal and civil charges against several individuals and companies accused of ripping off unemployed and other vulnerable people with work-at-home and other business scams.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal health authorities are investigating reports of 13 deaths possibly linked to so-called energy shots and cautioning consumers to talk to their doctors before they take them or other energy drinks.

NEW YORK (AP) - U.S. stocks closed lower after uneven trading Tuesday as fears about the "fiscal cliff" and Greece tipped major indexes between gains and losses. A surge in Home Depot's stock prevented a steeper drop for the Dow Jones industrial average.